7-foot-1 Teen-ager A `Project'

245-pound Center Improving Rapidly

Have many college basketball programs keeping a watchful eye on your progress as you approach your senior year.

Get frustrated sometimes as smaller, quicker players dart around you and occasionally jump over you.

Know that your best basketball is ahead of you.

Munden is the most visible member of the Boo Williams AAU team that takes on the Soviet Union junior national team at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in Hampton Coliseum.

Normally, Munden's size would be an asset against a big, physical Soviet team. But don't be surprised if Munden is on the bench at key times as Williams' team uses quickness to combat the Soviets' size and aggressiveness.

Williams stood within shouting distance of Munden at Tuesday's practice at Kecoughtan High School and said, "We don't have the size or the real intimidator to go up against them."

In basketball terms, Jimmy Munden is a "project" - a kid whose skills haven't caught up to his frame; a kid who cannot contribute at the highest level of competition right now, but with work and maturity may blossom.

"It used to bother me," Munden said. "But it doesn't any more. I just keep trying to improve.

"A couple years ago I would really get frustrated sometimes. I had no stamina. I had a hard time catching the ball. I had no strength."

Munden will fumble a simple pass, lose his man on defense, allow a shorter person to get rebounding position, commit a silly foul. But just when you've written him off, he will get inside position, take a pass, and a sweet jump hook shot will fall softly through the net.

Munden is saddled with two burdens: The expectations that come with being the tallest kid around; and following Alonzo Mourning and J.R. Reid as big men in Williams' summer league and AAU ball.

"People around here got kind of spoiled with J.R. and Alonzo coming along back-to-back," Williams said. "Jimmy's more of a typical 7-foot kid. He's a little slower to develop, but he works hard.

"People expect him to automatically be another J.R. or Alonzo and that's not fair because he's not that kind of player."

Munden averaged 20.1 points, 14.3 rebounds and 5 1/2 blocked shots a game last season for Norfolk's Ryan Academy, a private school in the Metro Conference. The Metro is by no means the toughest competition in the area, but Ryan Coach and Athletic Director Bill Halvorsen scheduled outside games against nationally-ranked Oak Hill Academy, perennial Beach District contender Green Run, TCIS champion Nansemond-Suffolk Academy and state private school power Christchurch to get more competition for Munden.

"He's improved 100 percent in the last two years," Halvorsen said.

Given Munden's background, it's a wonder he's where he is at all.

He was born with a malformed left hip joint and had to wear a brace as a toddler in order to walk. At age 3, a cousin accidentally shot him in the chest with a pellet gun, the pellet lodging only a few centimeters from his heart. He was hit by an automobile while crossing the street at age 6, suffering only scrapes and bruises, but no broken bones.

Munden was also a sickly child, contracting pneumonia and bronchitis in first and second grade, which forced him to miss school and ultimately be held back a grade.

"When he was a kid, it was like he was jinxed," said Aulton Munden, Jimmy's father. "It wasn't an easy life for Jimmy. But since then, everything's fallen into place for him."

Munden was an average-sized kid until age 12, when he began to grow in spurts. He was 6-8 by the time he reached the eighth grade and 6-10 when he entered Oscar Smith High in Chesapeake, his neighborhood school.

After a year at Oscar Smith, Munden and his parents were concerned with his academic progress. Former Ryan Academy owner Richard Blosser, who knew Munden growing up, talked to him and his family about transferring. Munden transferred before his sophomore year.

Munden, awkward and uncoordinated at first, began to fill out. He jogged, skipped rope and began to work out with weights.

Through Williams' connections, Munden attended Howard Garfinckel's Five-Star camps each of the last two summers, playing against some of the best competition in the country and winning dedication and hustle awards.

Munden's size and improvement, plus his exposure from Five-Star camp, have interested college coaches from all over the country, including several in-staate schools.

Munden will finish his high school career at Fork Union Military Academy near Charlottesville this fall. He will turn 19 in July, and VHSL rules prohibit anyone who is 19 before October from participating in a sport that school year.

Munden worked out recently at Fork Union and Coach Fletcher Arritt was impressed. Arritt saw the fumbled passes and the awkward moves, but after coaching big men such as Dale Solomon (Virginia Tech), Dan Ruland (James Madison), Mel Turpin (Kentucky), Chris Washburn (N.C. State) and Kenny Williams (North Carolina signee, currently playing junior college ball), Arritt also sees a few things others don't.

Arritt pointed out that Turpin didn't make his high school junior varsity team as a sophomore. Four years later, he was a force at Kentucky.

"That's the thing about big guys," Arritt said. "A lot of times, big guys are slower to develop. Even though (Munden's) not that quick, you could tell he works hard and that's half of it. It's all in a kid's attitude and how much he wants to work. Who knows? In a year or two he could be a real good player."